president’s address. 
233 
A thorough naturalist and an ardent sportsman, yet ever 
ready to advance the cause of humanity, — as evidenced in 
his judicious support of the Society for Protection of Birds, — 
his judgment was always tempered with that sound common- 
sense which avoided sentimental extremes, and his liberality 
in promoting the objects of his favourite science was unbounded. 
Lord Lilford was a martyr to gout, and spent much time 
on his yacht (“ Zara ”) in the Mediterranean, adding largely 
to the knowledge of the birds of the islands and shores of the 
inland sea. From his frequent visits to Spain ho was also an 
acknowledged authority on the birds of the Peninsula ; but he by 
no means confined himself to exotic ornithology, and his book on 
the ‘Birds of Northamptonshire’ is the model of what a county 
“ fauna” should be, while his ‘ Coloured Figures of the Birds of the 
British Islands,’ unfinished at the time of his death, is unsurpassed 
for the beauty of its illustrations. As a sportsman he was a skilful 
falconer, an expert decoyman, and an ardent follower. of the Utter- 
hounds. Mr. Southwell, to whom I am indebted for these notes, 
tells me that Lord Lilford was in correspondence with him on the 
subject of Otters till within a few days of his death. 
Our other honorary member, Herr Giitke, died on the 1st 
January, 1897. Few men enjoyed such opportunities of studying 
the phenomena of Migration, and few could have made so 
excellent a use of his opportunities. Gsitke was born in 1813, at 
a small town of the Mark of Brandenburg, and as a young man 
visited Heligoland, induced by the facilities that island offered for 
the study of marine painting, and so enamoured did he become of 
the quaint little island that he never left it. He held an official 
position under the British Government, and when Heligoland was 
transferred to Germany he still continued to reside in his adopted 
home. The work of Gatke's life is embodied in his ‘ Birds of 
Heligoland’ which, as has been aptly said, is of great value, “not 
only because it embodies the results of fifty years’ observations 
made at one particular station, and on that account most reliable, 
but also because it contains so many suggestive remarks which 
deserve the consideration of other observers, who, though less 
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